Communicable Diseases Surveillance consists of data from various sources. The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) is conducted under the auspices of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia New Zealand. The Virology and Serology Laboratory Reporting Scheme (LabVISE) is a sentinel surveillance scheme. The Australian Sentinel Practice Research Network (ASPREN) is a general practitioner-based sentinel surveillance scheme. In this report, data from the NNDSS are referred to as 'notifications' or 'cases', whereas those from ASPREN are referred to as 'consultations' or 'encounters' while data from the LabVISE scheme are referred to as 'laboratory reports'.

Vaccine preventable diseases

While the number of notifications of vaccine preventable diseases remains low when compared with historical data (Figure 1), a significant number of notifications of pertussis continues to be received.

For the 245 pertussis notifications in this reporting period, the male to female ratio is 1:1.8 and the majority of cases (17%) are in the 10-14 age group.

Meningococcal infection

The number of notifications of meningococcal infection is comparable with historical data with 64 notifications being received in this reporting period compared with 64 in the same period last year. Serogroup information is available for 45% of notifications received in 1999 and, of these, 62% are serogroup B and 32% are serogroup C. This is comparable with the proportions reported in the most recent Annual Report of the Australian Meningococcal Surveillance Programme. The male to female ratio for the current reporting period is 1.25:1 while the majority of cases (37%) are in the 0 to 4 years age group, 14% are in the 15-19 age group and 12% are in the 20-24 age group.

This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 23, No 9, 2 September 1999.